The Daily Dispatch

A recent film about a Sudanese Lost Boy hit home for a few students at North Dakota State College of Science.

Titled "African Heart, American Soul," the documentary covered the struggle of thousands of children who fled Sudan, Africa, during its civil war in the late 1980s and relocated to the United States. The film, which played Wednesday, focuses on the transition of Joseph Akol Makeer, who moved to Fargo, along with his family.

One NDSCS student, Awok Nijoke, is an acquaintance of Makeer's. Both grew up in south Sudan to separate tribes, but Nijoke relocated to Chad, Libya and Egypt before arriving in Fargo in the fall of 2001.

"It's really tough," said Nijoke, referring to the transition. "Trust me, there's no place like home, but I enjoy my freedom."

Although he's not a Lost Boy, Nijoke was familiar with Makeer's story because it mirrored his own. Like Makeer, he was relocated through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and later left under the care of American nonprofit organizations for sponsorship. Nijoke was sponsored by Lutheran Social Services in Fargo, which also managed the Lost Boys.

Luckily, he had an uncle who lived in a city that eventually became a small haven for Sudanese refugees. Nijoke estimates about 3,000 to 4,000 live in Fargo now.

"It's easy if you know somebody, then they can send you there," he said. "Otherwise, they would choose a city that would take you."

His first winter here was extraordinary, especially to his family of eight back home. When his mother received photos of the snow-laden prairie, she asked him why the land was white.

"I said, 'No, that is the snow,' and she said, 'Then you guys don't need to buy ice,'" he recalled, laughing.

As political upheaval continues to grow in Sudan, Nijoke watches it from a distance.

"Sometimes it gets really emotional. It's really hard to describe after you see [things] so different here," he said. "Whatever bad you can imagine, it's there. I'd rather not go back."

Now he fills his time taking business courses at NDSCS. After trying to attend school in Thief River Falls, Minn., several years ago and working most recently as welder, he decided to switch career paths. Nijoke will finish his degree next year and intends to transfer to North Dakota State University, where he wants to try his hand at international relations. Hopefully, he can fall under a nonprofit organization that works with refugees, he said.

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